Statement by WPA polling agent, Sewnandan Surujpal – 1985 Elections – Appendix H

I arrived before 6:00 a.m. and took up my seat in the station. The PPP polling agent was also there.

The incident occurred around 4 to 4:15 p.m. when about 12 men, all Afro-Guyanese, entered through the main door of the station. The police on duty was not in sight. People were inside the station waiting to vote. The Presiding Officer did not say anything about this intrusion. Some of the people waiting to vote went back outside when these men came in. Some others just moved back.

The men came straight up to myself and the PPP Agent, and seized our papers. They told us to get out, that if we did not move they would have to handle us and that we had done enough work for the day.

About 2 men came and lifted me off my seat and carried me out to the roadside. I saw them chucking the PPP Agent in the same way. They did not even want us to collect our food bags. They told me if I don’t move they would have to shoot me that my life was short. People around us advised us just to go along for our safety.

The rest of men remained inside the polling station which they opened about 15 minutes later. A Land Rover and two vehicles were parked outside. A blue rover and two red cars had transported the men. One of the men had a long object wrapped up in a cloth under his arm. It looked like a gun. A boy I know from Meadowbank was passing by the polling station when the men were throwing me out. He was riding a cycle and turned to a friend and said: “Shucks boy, look what going on here!”

The driver of the blue land rover, a big skin red chap followed him to the Esso station and beat him on this face, eyes and mouth, I saw the boy later that day with his face all swollen and bruised.

This statement was made on December 10, 1985.